A Real-Life Digital Intervention for Personalized Nutrition in Adults With Overweight or Obesity: Remote Randomized...

Area of Science:

• Digital Health Interventions
• Nutritional Science
• Obesity Research

Background:

• Digital-first strategies are increasingly used to improve study efficiency and diversity.
• Fully remote studies face challenges in participant motivation and data standardization.
• Personalized nutritional advice delivery can be impacted by the lack of face-to-face interaction.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the feasibility of a fully remote, digital randomized controlled nutritional intervention.
• To evaluate participant experience and self-anthropometric measurement capabilities.
• To compare the effectiveness of generic versus personalized nutrition advice, with and without food boxes.

Main Methods:

• A 6-week, 3-arm online randomized controlled trial was conducted.
• Participants with overweight/obesity received generic advice, personalized advice, or personalized advice with food boxes.
• All data, including anthropometric measurements, were self-collected remotely.

Main Results:

• High feasibility was reported for self-measurements (83.6%) and questionnaire completion (91.8%).
• Personalized nutrition advice significantly reduced body weight (-1.0 kg; P=.002).
• Personalized advice plus food boxes yielded greater weight loss (-2.5 kg; P=.001) and hip circumference reduction (-2.9 cm; P=.01).

Conclusions:

• Fully remote, participant-led nutritional intervention studies are feasible and yield measurable results.
• Personalized nutritional advice is more effective for weight loss than generic advice.
• Personalized food boxes enhance the anthropometric benefits of digital nutritional interventions.